Ever since the TouchPad was released people have been looking for a solution to their Evernote woes, what with the fact that Evernote never created an app for the TouchPad and more recently that the app for phones was broken by a change on the Evernote servers. In swoops MeOrg!, a SpringPad client made by Sven Ziegler. SpringPad is a service not dissimilar to Evernote in that they both pretty much do the same thing, with many even preferring SpringPad over Evernote, but can MeOrg! stand up to the task?

The initial setup of MeOrg! is pretty simple; you can login to your account if you've already created an account or you can create a new account by tapping on the appropriate button, which loads up the SpringPad website in the browser. One thing that annoys me a bit, not limited to MeOrg! but a general user experience problem throughout many webOS apps, is that you must actually tap the login button to log in instead of just hitting the return key. Another thing that is a small bit annoying is that the username input field isn't set up to use the email keyboard by default even though in my case my username is my email address.

Once you enter the correct credentials and log in, you're prompted to import your Evernote or Google Note information if you want to. Finally, after you've finished logging in and importing your information you're brought to the main app screen - but wait, it doesn't automatically sync your SpringPad notes into the app, so you have to do that manually. I would prefer this to happen as soon as I log in because, well, why should I have to manually sync it on first use?

In the main app screen, you're presented with the traditional sliding pane layout with your notes on the left and the details view on the right. Something that immediately stands out to me is that the search box is rounded when it would look better and a little less off if it had box-y corners. Another thing that sticks out are the toolbar icons - they do take a bit of getting used to in order to understand what each one does, however the developer thought enough about this to include a description of each icon in the help popup which can be opened from the app menu.

Obviously a big part of SpringPad - and MeOrg! - is content consumption. You made the bookmarks, lists, or whatever else so you can look at it later. The app implements this well for many "objects" in SpringPad like lists and recipes, however there are some shortfalls with other objects like bookmarks. I would prefer that MeOrg! have an in-app browser for bookmarks, perhaps included in the large whitespace where the current source link is located. Of course, not everybody will have this same preference, so this would be best implemented as an optional feature.

MeOrg! includes a large selection of services to share through - email, messaging, PDF creation, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. There are a couple of areas that could be easily improved; for example, sharing via Twitter opens it up in the browser, same as Facebook, while most Twitter clients and the "official" Facebook apps for webOS all support cross-app launching. For people who don't visit the Twitter or Facebook websites on their webOS devices, such as myself, this is one of the areas most in need of an improvement.

MeOrg! isn't just for content consumption, it's also made content creation. Adding something in MeOrg! opens up a large popup which feels really out of place in webOS. It would be more natural to have a new pane show up, similar to how the email app works, and I would really prefer this over the current implementation. That's not to say it's broken in any way, it just doesn't really flow.

With MeOrg! and SpringPad you can create shopping lists, although that's more fitted for use if you're using MeOrg! on your phone than your tablet, given that the TouchPad isn't exacly a device sized for use at a grocery store. You are not limited to just shopping lists, you can create any type of list, as well as task sheets, recipes, appointments, reminders, and notes. The developer even added in some integration between recipes and lists, allowing you to quickly and easily add your recipe ingredients to any list you've created, which works well when you're doing your weekly shopping trip and have to pick up the ingredients to make seven different dinners.

Overall, MeOrg! looks pretty good and has some well-built share capabilities, however there are some issues with it too. Most are just little things that annoy me but may not be an issue for another user. There are some questionable design choices and, more importantly, some questionable user experience decisions. At $2.99 though, MeOrg! is an app you really must buy if you use SpringPad or are an Evernote user looking to move over to another service. If you currently do not use any service like Evernote or SpringPad but are thinking about it, you can't go wrong buying MeOrg! With a couple of updates, this app will be pretty much perfect. For now though, I would have to say MeOrg! is around 4 out of 5 stars.

11 Comments

To be honest: In my opinion this is an impertinence review.
There is a developer who spend a lot of time in bringing a service to a (offical neclegted) plattform. And you reviewing the app mentioning almost exclusively a lot of trivial subjectively annoying stuff. There is one Paragraph about a scene a normal user will only see one time in his life and on the other side only one paragraph about the real potential of the app.
What about filters, printing, full-text-search, tag-support and attachments? And why do you need an in-app-browser if your favourite browser ist just one click away?
*sarcasm* and Hey, rounded corners of a searchbox is really a DEALBRAKER! *sarcasm*
Please stop crying for new webOS-Apps, if quality apps are promoted like this here.

MeOrg! is one of my most used apps on my TP and it also works well on my Veer (which is very rare).

Well said. Also we should mention that the developer is a great guy (I had a few emails with him) and he always tries to resolve any issues.

I moved to Springpad after Evernote failed to work for my webOS devices for a week. I know it is fixed now, but I won't be going back. Their tech support sucks and even though I logged the error with them, all they said was thanks we will look into it when we have time.

I love the fact that you can also have access to your notes offline.

Sven thanks for this app and looking forward to more new ideas you may have.

One Thing about webos is that the bar is set so low when it comes to app quality. If you put the majority of the apps on another platform like iOS they would be rejected so why should they get a free pass on webos? Automatic A for effort?

Thats not the point. The App was jugded by trivial odds and ends, not by its features.
Qouted from another Review:
MeOrg! does everything that I need and to be honest better than the official Springpad app on the iPad. If you use Springpad you need this application.

Well for this app, some reviewers have a different position:
"...For my Springpad needs, MeOrg! does everything that I need and to be honest better than the official Springpad app on the iPad. If you use Springpad you need this application.
Rating: 87%..."

Does this app permit to input handwritten text through a stylus. I really want ability to jot down handwritten notes quickly in meetings. fingers/HP bluetooth keyboards just dont cut it for me many times. Otherwise which is best app to use handwritten notes and convert to pdf

I agree with michote that the review is lacking in a number of ways. I am happy that Arthur took some time to write it, but he has not yet mastered his writing style, and this seems sort of like a draft. I would recommend looking at some examples from more seasoned reviewers to see how they structure their reviews into parts. I think he will find that they spend 60% of their time covering the fundamentals, and very little on their own quibbles. Most writers have a standard set of questions they ask like: "what version of the OS does this work with, how stable was it to use, how safe was the data, how well did the importing and exporting work, what is it like to create or save a new item, how responsive was the developer, etc." There was some of that in here, but to miss so much while taking the developer to task for not having rounded corners on a search bar is a bit nit-picking.

Anyway, I have been exploring the program for about two weeks, and still haven't got the hang of it. Love that it might replace that buggy Evernote, and works a charm on my Pre2 and Touchpad.

Keep up the development and glad to have WebOS Nation still supporting us!

I love, Love, LOVE, L O V E!!!! this app! I'd been searching for something to be able to store recipes and such and have available off line. Springpad and this app allow me to do this. I only signed up for springpad after this app became available. Me and evernote never really got along, but THIS I actually USE. After springpad made changes (for the worse, I might add) the developer was on top of things making sure the app was still compatible. In fact, I only knew there was an issue because I saw him address it in the thread BEFORE it became an issue for me. I can put information on line and sync it to my touchpad and veer. It makes it really nice because while I have a keyboard for my touchpad, for large amounts of information, I prefer to input from my PC, and I can cut and paste stuff so I don't have to do a ton of typing. It's great. I'm very happy I didn't have to buy it a second time for my veer, but it is so useful I would have.

Hi Arthur, in my opinion your review is too harsh. I love this app and have been using it for a while (was a betatester) It made me leave Evernote. Your critics might be right, but none of them are important issues and in general it is a great app and we can be happy that apps like MeOrg are still being developed for webOS. For everyone interested in an alternative to Evernote, I can only recommend it! Go get it guys! I did even buy it for my playbook I just got as developer device.